418 



A HISTORY OF 



OF BIRDS INT GENERAL. 



CHAPTER LXXIV. 



INTRODUCTION. 



WE are now come to a beautiful and lo- 

 quacious race of animals, that embellish our 

 forests, amuse our walks, and exclude solitude 

 from our most shady retirements. From 

 these man has nothing to fear; their pleasures, 

 their desires, and even their animosities, only 

 serve to enliven the general picture of na- 

 ture, and give harmony to meditation. 



No part of nature appears destitute of in- 

 habitants. The woods, the waters, the depths 

 of the earth, have their respective tenants; 

 while the yielding air, and those tracts of 

 seeming space where man never can ascend, 

 are also passed through by multitudes of the 

 most beautiful beings of the creation. 



Every order and rank of animals seems fit- 

 ted for its situation in life ; but none more 

 apparently than birds: they share, in com- 

 mon with the stronger race of quadrupeds, 

 the vegetable spoils of the earth; are sup- 

 plied with swiftness, to compensate for their 

 want of force ; and have a faculty of ascend- 

 ing into the air, to avoid that power which 

 they cannot oppose. 



The bird seems formed entirely for a life 

 of escape ; and every part of the anatomy 

 of the animal seems calculated for swiftness. 

 As it is designed to rise upon air, all its parts 

 are proportionably light, and expand a large 

 surface without solidity. 



In a comparative view with man, their for- 

 mation seems much ruder and more imper- 

 fect ; and they are in general found incapa- 

 ble of the docility even of quadrupeds. In- 

 deed, what great degree of sagacity can be 

 expected in animals whose eyes are almost as 



large as their brain ? However, though they 

 fall below quadrupeds in the scale of nature, 

 and are less imitative of human endowments ; 

 yet they hold the next rank, and far surpass 

 fishes and insects, both in the structure of 

 their bodies and in their sagacity. 



As in mechanics the most curious instru- 

 ments are generally the most complicated, 

 so it is in anatomy. The body of man pre- 

 sents the greatest variety upon dissection; 

 quadrupeds, less perfectly formed, discover 

 their defects in the simplicity of their con- 

 formation ; the mechanism of birds is still 

 less complex ; fishes are furnished with few- 

 er organs still ; whilst insects, more imper- 

 fect than all, seem to fill up the chasm that 

 separates animal from vegetable nature. Of 

 man, the most perfect animal, there are but 

 three or four species; of quadrupeds, the 

 kinds are more numerous; birds are more 

 various still ; fishes yet more ; but insects af- 

 ford so very great a variety, that they elude 

 the search of the most inquisitive pursuer. 



Quadrupeds, as was said, have some dis- 

 tant resemblance in their internal structure 

 with man ; but that of birds is entirely dissi- 

 milar. As they seem chiefly formed to inha- 

 bit the empty regions of air, all their parts 

 are adapted to iheir destined situation. It 

 will be proper, therefore, before I give a ge- 

 neral history of birds, to enter into a slight 

 detail of their anatomy and conformation. 



As to their external parts, they seem sur- 

 prisingly adapted for swiftness of motion. 

 The shape of their body is sharp before, to 

 pierce andfnake way through the air; it then 



